Hi all, actually the 'ebay-shield' is from a kind of swampturtle (like a seaturle) that naturally has a skin covered boneshield; the shield from Detlef's book is the top of the turtleshield and the 'ebay-shield' is the bellyside of this same type of turtle.
They do only exist in those lakes/swamps in a particular area in East- Africa (dont know the specific details).
Most shields -which by most are not reckognised as such- the attached stick n bands are removed and sold as 'decorative turtleshield' as I have seen a few (like from the book). Also'ordinary turtleshield were used as shields sometimes.
So no skin has manually been drawn over the shield or like that. Hope this clears ONE detail about the <still quite interesting!> object
Cheers Wouter
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